A review of The Moor, by Sam Haysom
A group of teenage boys go on a hiking trip to a remote moor where they revel in trying to scare each other with ghost stories around the camp fire.
Soon strange things begin to happen. There are noises in the night and one of the boys discovers the remains of a dead rabbit outside his tent.
Then the boys begin to disappear.
But they aren’t the only ones to go missing on the moor, a place with a dark secret more awful than anyone could have imagined.
Sam Haysom’s debut novel is dripping in atmosphere right from the start.
His teenage protagonists are a mismatched group, all persuaded to go on a hike with the new boy at school and his father in order to train for a walking competition. Although the boys are friends, as the trip goes on, their rivalries and jealousies begin to stir and petty arguments soon cause trouble.
So when the first of the boys disappears, his friends hope that he’s just gone off in a huff to get back at them.
When another member of the group goes missing, they’re forced to realise that something more sinister is going on.
The story moves along at a fast pace, with a big reveal early on before the action moves forward in time and the reader learns how the events of the trip reverberate through the lives of the group, scarring them and setting them on a difficult path.
Extracts from newspaper stories introduce other disappearances that might be connected to events on the remote and lonely moor, helping to increase the sense of dread that fills the pages.
A creepy horror story with a shocking and unexpected secret at its heart.
You’ll never feel quite the same about a camping trip again.
Find out more
The Moor on Unbound
The Moor on Goodreads
The Moor on Amazon
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